Roque is out conferring, Vega is mostly out of sight: Political Insider

View full sizeJournal file photoWhat does Sal Vega, above, and the late Claude Rains have in common? They both played the Invisible Man.

West New York Commissioner-elect Dr. Felix Roque and his victorious running mates will be sworn in on Tuesday and a more public celebration will be held Wednesday at 6 p.m. The problem is that they expect several thousand people and the Town Hall is too small. They are looking at a possible outdoor venue.

Roque is expected to be voted in as mayor by the other newly elected commissioners.

Because the new administration will have to hit the ground running, Roque said he is seeking advice from several government sources, including Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner, who was the town's business administrator under former West New York mayor and now U.S. Rep. Albio Sires.

The newly elected official said he also plans to meet with Union City Mayor and Sen. Brian Stack and looks forward to speaking to North Bergen Mayor and Sen. Nick Sacco. West New York is now part of Sacco's redrawn 32nd Legislative District, but Stack is still recognized by many of the town's Hispanics of the old 33rd District.

"I have found Mr. Sacco to be a gentleman," Roque said.

West New York Mayor-in-leaving Sal Vega has been out of sight since Tuesday night, when Roque and his slate swept him and his commissioners out of office. Roque forces said that when they marched past Town Hall that winning night they could see Vega and others peeking out from a window. They also said some could hear sobbing from the mayor's office once the vote tally was known.

Vega doesn't answer phone calls and his Town Hall office aides always sound nervous when they fib about his whereabouts.

"He's not in at this moment" or "he's not in his office" are the mundane responses.

They could have been honest and just said: "It's over, you expect him to be sitting here in Town Hall?" Or, "quick, dredge the river."

I just thought the ousted commissioners would be busy in their offices burning and shredding things.

Vega was last sighted at Las Palmas restaurant in North Bergen Thursday evening. He was with outgoing Commissioner Gerald Lange Jr. -- "Hey I had a good run," Lange said Tuesday -- and a third party. They were overheard commiserating and still wondering what happened.

Taxes happened.

INSIDER NOTES
-- West New York Commissioner-elect Caridad Rodriguez will resign her Assembly seat before being sworn in on Tuesday. Will someone replace her until the November election?

Bayonne Mayor and Hudson County Democratic Organization Chairman Mark Smith will have seven days after Rodriguez's resignation to have the county committee members of "the old" 33rd District decide who can replace her in an interim capacity.

In June, new 33rd District voters will be picking someone for Assemblywoman Joan Quigley's old 32nd District post. Rodriguez's seat will be in the new 32nd. The HCDeadO powers have decided that Jersey City Police Detective Sean Connor will be running under their banner for the new 33rd District and Angelica Maria Jimenez, vice president of the West New York school board, is their candidate for the new 32nd District Assembly slot.

Until November, to avoid unseen political dangers, Smith has the HCDeadO's lawyers and soothsayers (Neil?) researching the possibility of leaving the new 32nd District seat vacant. I guess that's the measure of the post's importance.

-- Gotta say, I don't know how anyone in Hoboken's City Hall can claim a great victory on Tuesday.

In most municipalities, if you only win two out of six available elected positions, people feel sorry for you. Mayor Dawn Zimmer's 2-4 scorecard includes failing to take back her home 4th Ward, retained by anti-administration incumbent Tim Occhipinti.

Yeah, I know Jennifer Giattino's 6th Ward victory is hailed as an upset, but in the long run she may do better as a true independent if the administration does not start to politically dominate the landscape. Having three council people already in the bank, Zimmer won back a 5-4 majority on the City Council -- possibly until the next election.

Winning the hearts and minds of Hoboken is proving difficult -- for everyone.

-- I wanted to know whether Bayonne Mayor and Hudson County Democratic Organization Chairman Mark Smith would be attending the swearing in of Roque in West New York. Mark hasn't called me back, so I guess he's still mad at me.

Last weekend, Smith called me at a Boston hotel. He was upset because I posted a rumor spoken at an Assemblyman Jason O'Donnell fund-raiser that the Bayonne mayor wants a post within the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. They also ruminated about the possibility of Smith being replaced by O'Donnell as mayor.

Mark said he was being inundated by phone calls from people asking if it was true. "Even the Star-Ledger is calling," he moaned. Unfortunately, I was half-asleep and my first reaction was to laugh. After all, part of the headline of the column was "We've got rumors." Now he's on record as saying he'd never leave Bayonne.

"You got to do something for me, Augie," the mayor said. So I did, a day late.

I could not give Mark my sources, so he can "flatten whoever" it was that gave me that item.

Mark's chief of staff, Steve Gallo, sent me an email where he said they all had a good laugh over the column item and that he asked everyone who was at the fund-raiser if they said anything about it and no one fessed up. Steve expected someone to say, "Yeah, I said that. Now flatten me." One elected official's name was offered as a rumor-mongering rat, I guess to gauge my reaction. The rat was insulted even after I said I never gave him up.

Did they ever read the part where I thought it unlikely Smith would get such a post because Gov. Chris Christie would be foolish to give a plum job like that to a Democrat instead of a Republican?

It's Bayonne, not Hoboken.

-- Heard Jersey City Councilman Peter Brennan was upset because a few columns ago I said he'd be up there in age by the time the 2013 city election gets here. I believe I put him in Councilman Bill Gaughan's category of hitting the 80's. Pete says he's in his 70's. Don't worry councilman, you're like that Orson Welles commercial about wine "before its time" -- or is it like that other Mercury Theater player John Houseman and his commercial about the investment banker -- "they earn it". Or am I thinking of what commercial actress Clara Peller said?

-- Sacco and company will be sworn in Tuesday at noon.

-- There was no mention of the Jersey City mayor's name in this column.